TRYING TO TARNISH ROMNEY HASN’T MADE OBAMA SHINE

Bain Capital’s business practices, a crated dog placed atop the Romney family station wagon, the peccadilloes of Fox News and Mitt Romney’s unreleased tax returns – these are the subjects that President Obama and his Chicago-based campaign team have decided are the most important issues facing the American people.

But if recent public opinion surveys are any indication, the American people don’t agree.

After spending an estimated – and unprecedented – $100 million in swing states to tarnish Romney in negative ads as the callous rich guy with Swiss bank accounts who shipped jobs overseas while making millions for his venture capital firm, Obama’s poll numbers … stayed exactly the same.

If you like good government and positive political campaigns, it’s tempting to believe that the Democrats’ hardball tactics and obsession with Romney’s income taxes have had no effect – or perhaps even backfired.

Under some fire for running exactly the kind of campaign that Obama promised four years ago not to run, his campaign aides have shrugged off criticism by noting that the attacks against the Republican nominee have achieved their desired effect. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll done last month found that 33 percent of those surveyed in swing states now view Romney’s business experience negatively, nearly twice the number who consider it an asset.

Yet last week, some evidence emerged suggesting that the food-fight approach might be taking its toll on the president’s reputation as well.

One survey, a New York Times/CBS Poll released midweek, actually showed Romney with a 1 percent lead. This is obviously within the margin of error – most polls have showed a narrow Obama lead – but the Times/CBS poll had a more worrying finding for the White House: It also showed the president getting very poor marks – under 40 percent – for his handling of the economy.

The question is why Romney seems to be weathering this barrage. Here are some possibilities:

Voters are too smart for it. Or, let’s put it this way: they have other things on their minds. The U.S. is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, trying to prevent a rogue regime in Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons – and another rogue regime in North Korea from ever using them. Syria is aflame, and the rest of the “Arab spring” is proceeding uncertainly.

Home prices are still stagnant, as are construction starts. The federal government is spending $1 trillion more than it takes in each year, with no end in sight. The unemployment rate has been over 8 percent for nearly 42 months now, and it’s clear that those numbers are masking the true picture, which is even worse.

Not only do independent voters consider these problems more important than seeing Romney’s tax returns, but they may be questioning the priorities of a president who doesn’t agree.

This is not who Obama said he was. Four years ago, Americans elected as president a freshman senator from Illinois who had never authored significant legislation, never served in the military, never ran a state or a company – a man whose résumé was so thin that his advisers offered up his running the presidential campaign itself as an example of executive experience.